Reform of the pension security system
Since the transition of the economic system, Russia's pension security system has been reformed in three directions: first, the gradual abandonment of the state's practice of taking over everything and the realization of diversified sources of social security funding; second, in dealing with the interrelationship between social equity and efficiency, the focus has shifted from the past, where equity was neglected in favor of efficiency, to a shift from efficiency to equity; third, the level of pensions has been raised continuously. Third, the level of pensions has been raised.
Before 1997, the main elements of the reform in this area were: first, in Russia, in addition to the implementation of voluntary pension insurance, all citizens and enterprises must participate in mandatory pension insurance, the source of the fund is delinked from the State budget, and the establishment of a special Russian Federation extrabudgetary self-governance pension fund, the fund comes from the Federation and the budgets of the constituent entities of the federation, the insured units and individuals from three aspects. Employers contribute 31.6 per cent of gross wages and employees contribute 5 per cent of their wages, with enterprises and employees generally contributing more than 90 per cent of the total amount of the fund. Second, the conditions for receiving a pension are the same as in the Soviet period, with a minimum of 25 years of service for men aged 60 and women aged 55 and above, and a minimum of 20 years of service.
Because of the high and highly variable inflation rate, the old method of calculating pensions, which had remained unchanged for a long time, became difficult to adapt to the changed situation and often failed to curb the decline in the real level of pensions due to inflation, which in turn prevented pensioners from securing a minimum standard of living. For this reason, indexation of pensions was introduced in 1992. Indexation is based on changes in market prices, the average wage of active workers and the level of the pensioner's previous wage and benefits, and in September 1997 the Act on the Procedure for Calculating and Increasing Pensions was adopted, stipulating that, as of 1 February 1998, pensions would no longer be calculated on the basis of price increases but on the basis of an increase in the average monthly wage for the country as a whole. It also provides for the use of individual coefficients to improve pensions.
In 1997, Russia also introduced a major reform of its pension system, based on the World Bank's "three-pillar" model. The first pillar is the social pension insurance, which is limited to provide assistance to the special hardship group of people who can not afford to pay the pension insurance premiums, financed by the government; the second pillar is the mandatory old-age pension insurance, which is the most important part of the "three pillars", the source of funds from the contributions of enterprises and employees and the fund income, in 2001 through the introduction of a uniform social tax The tax was formed in 2001 through the introduction of the Unified Social Tax. The tax is a merger of the old pension fund, the social insurance fund, and the compulsory health insurance fund, and is levied at the rate of 35.6% of the total wage bill. The introduction of the unified social tax replaced the previously existing system of insurance contributions to the state extra-budgetary fund. The third pillar, supplementary pension insurance, is a voluntary pension insurance, established voluntarily by the employer and available to all employees on a voluntary basis, with the use of fund-based individual account management, which allows the employee to flexibly adjust his or her income after retirement by purchasing supplementary pension insurance on his or her own, in addition to the basic subsistence guarantee. The number of voluntary pension insurance schemes in Russia is very small, with only 1 per cent of the working-age population participating in such schemes. The reason for this is that, in general, the majority of the population has a low level of income and is unable to afford additional insurance expenses; secondly, the rate of return on investment in pension insurance funds is often lower than the rate of return on other investments; in addition, Russia's non-state financial institutions have a poor reputation, and the majority of the population lacks trust in them.
Russia has carried out many reforms in the pension security system, but there is still a big gap with international standards. In addition, in the face of the pressure of the population continues to aging trend at the same time the state burden is increasing, so that the pension security system is running in the red, it is difficult to rely on financial subsidies to maintain.
In response to the above situation, Russia decided to carry out a new reform of the pension security system from January 1, 2010, the essence of which is the transition to the principle of insurance, that is, the right of citizens to enjoy the pension and the amount of pension depends directly on the insurance contributions of each individual to the State Pension Fund, with the aim of making a change in the income of the pensions from relying on tax revenues to relying on insurance revenues.
In general, Russia has paid attention to the reform of the pension system in the process of economic transition and has constantly raised the level of pensions, which increased by 1.5 times in the eight-year period from 2000 to 2007. in 2012, the average monthly pension for the whole of Russia amounted to 9,800 rubles.
Russia's pension system also has a number of problems, the most notable of which is that, despite the government's policy of reducing the burden on the state by increasing pension insurance premiums, the state's finances are still under enormous pressure. in 2007, the government's transfers for pensions accounted for 1.5 percent of GDP, but by 2010 they accounted for 5.2 percent of GDP, and overall pension expenditures accounted for around 5.2 percent of GDP. , and overall pension spending was about 9% of GDP. The Russian pension fund has been in deficit since 2005, amounting to 87 billion rubles, and is preparing to ease the deficit by raising the retirement age and other measures, with plans to raise the retirement age from 60 to 65 for male citizens and from 55 to 60 for female citizens after 2015.
Secondly, it will be difficult for quite some time to resolve the contradiction between the growing share of pension funds in GDP on the one hand, and the low ratio of average pensions to average wages on the other. The result is to increase the pressure on the state finances, while retirees are also dissatisfied with the government because of low pensions. For this reason, the Russian government has even promised that pensions will be raised by at least 45 percent from 2015.
Due to the aging and decreasing population in Russia, the burden of the elderly per 100 working-age people will rise from 36 in 2010 to 53 in 2031, and the dependency burden rate will increase by 47.2%. This is not only a major problem for the development of the Russian pension system, but also a major challenge for Russia's economic and social development.
Reform of the health insurance system
Russia's transition to a market economy has made the previous health care system incompatible with the marketization of the entire economic system, and has required the Russian government to reform the health care system and establish a modern health insurance system that is compatible with marketization. To this end, the main policies implemented have been: first, the transformation of the system from a system of State financial allocations to a system of social insurance; and, second, the transformation of the system from a system of free medical care, which was financed by the State, to a system of medical care, which is financed by the State and the population*** alike.
On June 28, 1991 Russia adopted the Law on Medical Insurance of Citizens of the Russian Federation, which laid the legal foundation for the reform of the Russian medical system. The law stipulates that all permanent residents of the Russian Federation must participate in compulsory health insurance, the premiums of which are borne by the state and enterprises***. Residents who are employed are required to pay a certain percentage of their wages for compulsory medical insurance, and those who are not employed are required to pay for compulsory medical insurance from the state budget; compulsory and voluntary medical insurance contributions are the main source of funding for the Russian health care system; within the scope of compulsory medical insurance, the government provides free medical care, the amount and conditions of which are based on the compulsory medical insurance basic program approved by the federal government and local governments at all levels; changes to the compulsory medical insurance basic program are being implemented; and changes to the compulsory medical insurance system are being implemented. The basic outline of compulsory medical insurance is being implemented; the criteria for the payment of medical insurance have been changed so that the State's allocation of medical insurance for the population is no longer based on the individual's salary but on the medical insurance premiums paid by the individual, on the basis of the principle of "pay more, pay more, pay less, get less"; in addition to the compulsory medical insurance, voluntary medical insurance has been set up, with premiums paid by enterprises and individuals***, and with non-State-owned insurance companies bearing their costs in the event that the population is entitled to medical care other than free medical care. insurance companies to bear their costs.
Provisions on the Establishment of Federal and Local Compulsory Medical Insurance Funds and the Law on Compulsory Medical Insurance for Citizens of the Russian Federation were also adopted in April 1993 and 1996, respectively, with a view to advancing the establishment of a system of compulsory medical insurance. A number of further specific reforms of the medical insurance system have been adopted in Russia on the basis of the above-mentioned legal documents.
A medical insurance company was established. The companies are independent business entities that are not subject to the management of governmental health and medical departments and can contract all types of medical insurance business. Enterprises and state management organs sign contracts with insurance companies as policyholders, and insured persons seek medical treatment at medical service organizations designated by the insurance company, which pays the medical expenses for the insured persons. The medical insurance company may inspect and supervise the quality of medical services provided by the medical institutions on behalf of the insured's interests, and, if necessary, file claims and impose fines and sanctions on the medical units.
During Yeltsin's administration, a new framework for the health insurance system was formed, but regulations and policies on reform of the health care system were not well implemented due to the severe crisis of economic transition, market disruption, and difficulties in enforcing various laws during this period. Due to the shortage of funds, the state's allocation to health care has been greatly reduced, and many people have difficulties in seeking medical treatment.
Putin has paid a lot of attention to Russia's health care since he came to power. In 2005, he proposed that health care be one of the four priority areas of the National Priority Development Program (the other three being education, housing, and agriculture), and personally chaired the Committee on National Priority Development Programs set up for this purpose. The implementation of the "Health" National Priority Development Program began in the same year, and expenditures for that year amounted to 78.7 billion rubles. Another of Putin's key objectives in implementing the "Healthy" NPDP is to increase the life expectancy of Russians, which in 1994 was 57 years, in 1999 it was 60 years, and in 2012 it was 68 years. Although life expectancy is increasing, it is still at a low level in the world, and this is a problem that Russia needs to address urgently. In 2008, Vladimir Putin proposed to raise the average life expectancy of Russians to 75 years by 2020. Therefore, improving health and medical services is a very urgent task.
In order to bring the health insurance system into line with marketization and modernization, on November 29, 2010 the Law of the Russian Federation "On Partial Amendments to the Law of the Russian Federation on Compulsory Health Insurance" was adopted. There are three main elements: (1) granting insured persons the right to choose their own health insurance company, a right they did not have before; (2) expanding the scope of compulsory health insurance benefits. Currently, the compulsory health insurance system pays healthcare organizations in only five areas: salaries, wages, cost of expenses, medicines, and food. Since 2013, all expenditures of medical institutions, except those for capital construction, maintenance and purchase of equipment over 100,000 rubles, have been covered by the mandatory medical insurance system; (3) elimination of restrictions on the access of private medical institutions to the mandatory medical insurance system. This reform has made Russian compulsory medical insurance more accessible to the general population.
But at present, Russia's health care system still has a lot of problems: insufficient funds are still not well resolved, the mandatory health insurance system to the beginning of 2012, the funding gap of about 100 billion rubles; the level of medical services is low, the work is not very efficient. In addition to the backwardness of medical equipment, this situation is also related to the low incomes of medical staff. In 2007, the income of doctors in Western countries was two to three times the average social wage, while in 2007 the income of Russian doctors was only 65% of the average social wage, which inevitably affects the motivation of medical staff to improve their performance. Russia has been working for several years to raise the income level of medical personnel. As with the rest of the country, corruption in the medical field is also very serious in Russia, and the phenomenon of giving "red packets" is very common.
Because of these problems, many private hospitals have sprung up in Russia, especially in big cities like Moscow, and some patients with higher incomes choose to go to private clinics.
Reform of the housing system
Housing in the Soviet period has been in a state of great tension, and the progress of improvement has been slow, although objectively there are reasons for the war destruction and the very poor housing conditions left in Russia, but fundamentally it is caused by the Soviet housing system. With the traditional planned economy, the Soviet Union's housing system has a welfare nature, the main feature is, by the state to take over, most of the citizens of the state is responsible for the construction of housing and gratuitous allocation to the implementation of the policy of low rents and high subsidies.
The shortcomings of the Soviet housing system were obvious: first, the state bore a heavy financial burden. For a long time, the state for the national economy of infrastructure investment, housing construction investment to account for 15-18%, second only to industrial and agricultural investment. Secondly, the very low rents do not cover the depreciation and maintenance of housing, which is solved by large subsidies from the State. According to the materials of the city of Moscow, the rent, utilities, heating and natural gas charges collected from the residents can cover only 1-2% of the actual costs, which is not even enough to cover the expenses of maintaining the fee-paying units. Thirdly, it contributes to the mentality of dependence on the state and weakens the incentive to build housing from multiple sources. Fourthly, in the process of allocating housing, it is difficult to distribute housing in accordance with uniform regulations, and often leaders use their power to take up more housing. According to a statement made by the head of the Russian State Construction Committee at the end of 1993, there were still 17 million people in Russia with a housing area of less than 5 square meters, about 11 million households with several families living together in a single dwelling, about 2 million households living in old and dangerous houses, about 9.5 million people waiting in line for a house, and a shortage of 40 million housing units in Russia, with the line of waiting for a house getting longer and longer, and the average period of waiting for a house being as long as 20 years. (See Russia's "Literary Newspaper" December 29, 1993)
In the above situation, Russia in the process of transformation of the economic system, it is necessary to carry out a fundamental reform of the housing system. The policy of the reform is, first, to privatize public housing, i.e., to hand over the property rights to the residents in a gratuitous manner; second, to change the original housing system, which mainly relied on the state to build housing and provide it to the residents without any compensation, i.e., the state will no longer allocate housing, but will implement multi-channel financing for housing construction, and will encourage citizens to individually build and purchase housing; third, to raise the rent so that it is close to the real value of the housing, in order to overcome the original egalitarianism of low rents; and fourth, to as soon as possible Establishment and development of the real estate market, so that it is compatible with the large-scale privatization of state-owned enterprises and the transition of the entire economy to a market economic system.
The privatization of housing in Russia was carried out on the basis of the principles of voluntariness, gratuitousness and disposability. The principle of voluntariness means that citizens participate in the privatization of housing of their own free will, so that public housing becomes their own, and the principle of gratuitousness means that all citizens can acquire ownership of the housing they already live in free of charge and in accordance with the established criteria. The amount of housing transferred to citizens free of charge is determined on the basis of the per capita housing area in Russia, which must not be less than 18 square metres per person; under special conditions, a further 9 square metres may be made available to each household on the basis of the performance of the housing, with the excess to be settled by a one-time or instalmental payment. The principle of one-time payment means that citizens can obtain housing for their own use in a one-time payment on the basis of privatization.
In parallel with the privatization of housing, Russia has taken various policy measures to encourage citizens to build and buy houses, such as the provision of credits for building and buying houses. Russia also through the issuance of housing vouchers to attract residents to invest in housing. Housing vouchers are marketable securities that retain their value and can be used to purchase housing in installments. In addition, Russia's own funds and special loans to build houses, buy houses, citizens, their personal deposits in residential special savings account can be exempted from personal income tax.
Gradually increasing the proportion of residents' contributions to housing utilities, from 2005 onwards, 100% of the burden of residents, if the proportion of the cost of this item in the total income of the residents of more than 20%, the state can give the corresponding subsidies. This measure not only helps to reduce the pressure on local finances, but also can make the maintenance of housing utilities to get the funds to ensure.
The reform of the housing system has led to a significant increase in the volume of private housing, with private housing accounting for 63% of the housing stock and public housing for 37% in 2001, compared with 67% of the housing stock in 1989 before the reform, when 33% of the housing stock was public and 33% private. The reform of the housing system has contributed to the development of housing construction, with per capita housing space increasing from 16.8 square meters in 1992 to 22.8 square meters in 2011.
The main problem in housing at present is that, after the privatization of housing, the number of housing units available for free allocation or for sale at preferential prices has been greatly reduced, leading to an increase in the number of homeless households, which is also closely related to the significant rise in housing prices. With the reform of housing privatization, Russian real estate has entered the market and prices have risen. According to the Russian newspaper announced the Russian major cities in October 2011 housing prices list, which the top three cities in the city list is as follows: Moscow 5902 U.S. dollars / square meter (set area), St. Petersburg 2895 U.S. dollars / square meter, Yekaterinburg 1985 U.S. dollars / square meter. High-end housing in prime locations in the city of Moscow, nearly 10,000 U.S. dollars per square meter, and some even up to 50,000 U.S. dollars. In January to May 2011, the average monthly salary of people in Moscow was 1,465 U.S. dollars, including 3,500 U.S. dollars per month for those working in the financial sector. 2011, the average monthly minimum cost of living in all of Russia, the standard is 6,369 rubles, about 213 U.S. dollars. According to a survey of rental prices in 24 major cities published on October 20, 2011 by the Russian Federation's "Real Estate World" association, the average monthly rent in Moscow was $1,000 for a one-bedroom apartment, $1,723 for a two-bedroom apartment and $3,502 for a three-bedroom apartment.
Putin pointed out in a presidential campaign article titled "Building Justice-Russia's Social Policy," published Feb. 13, 2012, in the ****Youth Pravda newspaper, that only 1/4 of Russia's citizens currently have the ability to build or buy new housing. The Russian Government will solve the problem of housing for the population in a number of ways. He believes that with the implementation of various measures, 60 percent of families can be provided with new housing by 2020, and the problem can be completely solved by 2030.
Another problem in the process of reforming the Russian housing system is the existence of monopolies in the real estate sector and price manipulation in the market. A statement from Russian Federation Prosecutor General Chaika said, "In view of the possibility of joint price manipulation, the Federal Antimonopoly Service has been commissioned to organize an investigation to determine whether real estate developers are complying with the provisions of the antimonopoly law when pricing their properties." This issue was highlighted by Putin in his 2004 presidential state-of-the-nation address, in which he said that in order to regularize the real estate market, it was necessary to break up the monopoly in the construction market, and that Russian citizens should not have to pay for the cost of the construction industry due to administrative obstacles, nor should they have to pay for the excessive profits of the builders.
Today's living conditions in Russia
The standard of living of the Russian population has significantly improved as a result of a series of policies to improve the welfare of the population. Developing the economy is first and foremost about people, jobs, income and new opportunities," Putin said in an article published during his 2012 presidential campaign. Compared to the 1990s, the number of people living in poverty has been reduced by 3/5. the era of stagnation, when the working-age population of large cities could not find a job or receive a salary for months, is over." (Vladimir Putin, "Russia is Struggling - The Challenges We Have to Face," [Russian] Kommersant, January 16, 2012)
The average monthly real wage in Russia in 2012 was 26,690 rubles; the average monthly pension in the whole of Russia was 9,800 rubles; the average housing space per capita was 22.8 square meters; and the unemployment rate was 5.3% (4.3 million people); the implementation of universal basic free medical services, surgery is free, hospitalization is free, treatment is free, the only thing not free is the cost of medicine. It doesn't matter if you are Russian or not, if anyone in Russia gets sick, you will be treated for free. Education is compulsory for 11 years and higher education is partially free. The percentage of publicly-funded students at public universities may not be less than 40%. In practice, the proportion of publicly-funded university students is about 50 percent; the average monthly minimum subsistence line in 2012 was 6,511 rubles, or about $217; and in 2011, every 100 households owned 164 television sets, 121 refrigerators, 99 washing machines, and 48 cars. Overall, the Russian people have shared the fruits of economic growth.
The reason why Putin has paid more attention to raising people's living standards since he came to power is, first of all, because he has summed up the experience of Yeltsin's rule, is well aware that in order to stabilize society, it is necessary to have the broad support of the people, and insists on pursuing a policy of constantly raising the living standards of the Russian people. During Yeltsin's rule, the deterioration of Russia's economic situation led to a significant decline in the people's standard of living, making it essentially impossible for the state to ensure that the people's demands for education, health care, and culture were met. These factors were a major reason for the lack of support for social reforms.
In addition, a substantial increase in wages and pensions is the basis for increasing the purchasing power of the population so that domestic demand can be expanded. Expanding domestic demand has been a factor in Russia's economic growth for several years.
While Putin has taken a series of policy measures in the area of distribution since he came to power, focusing on improving the situation of low-income groups, and has achieved positive results, there are still some problems in the area of distribution in Russia. Most notably, due to the existence of monopolies and corruption, the tendency for the incomes of poor residents to lag behind the incomes of the rich has not been overcome, but continues to intensify. According to Russian official statistics, the real income of the Russian population grew by 9-12 percent per year in 2001-2005, a cumulative increase of 60 percent, but the distribution results were clearly skewed in favor of the rich: the real incomes of the richest 10 percent of the population grew by 123 percent, while those of the poorest 10 percent grew by a mere 50 percent of the rich. 50%. One of the serious consequences of this is the widening of the income gap between the richest and poorest 10% of the population, which was 14 times higher in 1999, 14.5 times higher in 2003, 15.2 times higher in 2004, 14.8 times higher in 2005, 15.1 times higher in 2006, and 16.1 times higher in 2011. Speaking on the issue, Putin noted that "the gap between the richest and the poorest groups is shortening too slowly ...... Excessive polarization would be unjust and cause social tensions."
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